White House wants to halt ethics office’s inquiry into ex-lobbyists in administration [Updated]

[corbe]

White House wants to halt ethics office’s inquiry into ex-lobbyists in administration
   
 BY Julie Bykowicz, Associated Press   May 23, 2017 at 11:45 AM EDT 
 
WASHINGTON — The message from a senator to the government ethics office: Use your authority to force the president to reveal how many waivers he’s granted to ex-lobbyists in his new administration.

That was Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s demand to the Office of Government Ethics in June 2009. He was seeking information about some of President Barack Obama’s most controversial appointees, the people who used to make their living pressing the federal government for money and policies.
 
Eight years and a political flip later, Republicans in President Donald Trump’s administration say OGE lacks that authority, and they’ve asserted that there’s no need for them to publicly disclose any ethics waivers.

Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney is asking that ethics director Walter Shaub halt his inquiry into lobbyists-turned-Trump administration employees. “In particular, this data call appears to raise legal questions regarding the scope of OGE’s authorities,” Mulvaney wrote in a letter last week to Shaub.

Shaub fired back Monday that OGE’s request is well within bounds. He highlighted Grassley’s request years ago as evidence that lawmakers agree, even though Republicans so far have been silent on the Trump administration’s resistance to disclosure.

The ethics director says he expects to see the waiver information within 10 days.

“I want to assure you that a request from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget is not something that I decline lightly,” Shaub wrote to Mulvaney.

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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/white-house-wants-halt-ethics-offices-inquiry-ex-lobbyists-administration/

[Free Vulcan]

As far as I can tell OGE is within it's authority. It seems to be a legit course of investigative inquiry. I can't tell if it's politically motivated or not, yet.

If it all lines up that OGE is right, then the WH must back off, or they run the danger of reprecussions, particularly that libs are at the edge of their seat trying to find something to bring him down.

[Suppressed]

Here's the Ethics Office's reply to Trump...

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3728657/OGE-Letter-to-OMB-Director-Mulvaney.pdf

Basically, "Are you kidding me?!  We're here to watch people like you!"

I am in receipt of your May 16, 2017, letter¹ requesting that the U.S. Office of
Government Ethics (OGE) suspend its inquiry into the practices of agency ethics programs and,
separately, the activities of individual appointees.² Specifically, you ask OGE to stay a directive
issued in an April 28, 2017, Program Advisory requiring executive branch officials to produce
information and records pertaining to ethics waivers and authorizations. ³

Despite the highly unusual nature and distribution of your letter,⁴ I have provided for
your convenience the following discussion of OGE's plenary authority to collect the information
and records sought, as well as evidence of the longstanding history of compliance with such
collections, which obviate any need to request an opinion from the Department of Justice's
Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The unusual nature of your letter highlights OGE's
responsibility to lead the executive branch ethics program with independence, free from political
pressure. Accordingly, OGE declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its
expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive by June 1, 2017. Public confidence
in the integrity of government decisionmaking demands no less.

By law, OGE is the "supervising ethics office" for the executive branch. ⁵ Under the
Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA), as amended, OGE has plenary authority to collect all
information and records that "the Director may determine to be necessary for the performance of
his duties,'' as well as such reports "as the Director deems necessary,'' except to the extent
prohibited by law. ⁶

[,,,snip...]

[Oceander]

Here's the Ethics Office's reply to Trump...

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3728657/OGE-Letter-to-OMB-Director-Mulvaney.pdf

Basically, "Are you kidding me?!  We're here to watch people like you!"

That letter is nothing but bureaucrateze for "bitchslap".

[Suppressed]

That letter is nothing but bureaucrateze for "bitchslap".

Yup. Well put.

[corbe]

White House will post info about ethics waivers for ex-lobbyists working for Trump
AP/ May 26, 2017, 7:30 PM
Last Updated May 26, 2017 7:43 PM EDT


The White House is preparing to post to its website information about waivers it has granted to ex-lobbyists working in the president's office.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters says the information will be available before the Thursday deadline set by the Office of Government Ethics.

A letter Friday from the Office of Management and Budget says the rest of the executive branch — departments such as Treasury, State and Defense — also will comply.

Similar information was shared with the ethics office during the Obama administration. OGE Director Walter Shaub had asked President Trump to continue that tradition, formally making a request last month.

As part of Mr. Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" of Washington, the president continued an Obama-era two-year prohibition of lobbyists and lawyers hired into the executive branch from working on "particular" government matters that involved their former clients.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-will-post-info-about-ethics-waivers-for-ex-lobbyists-working-for-trump/